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The Importance of Crawling. |
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by TheMentorMom  (August 2006) (rank 2nd) |
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I posted an article yesterday about the importance of tummy time. Today I want to share some information on crawling. There have been some studies that indicate that late walkers score better later in life on academic achievement tests. It is hypothesized that because of the use of alternating sides of the body (e.g., right arm and left leg, then vica versa), there is increased communication between the two sides of the brain thus enhancing learning.
There also is an interesting theory out there about a link between lack of crawling and ADD/ADHD. Before talking about this possible link, however, you need a little background on the basis of this theory. It all has to do with an innate reflex called the symmetric tonic neck reflex. This reflex tells the neck and arms to work in opposition to our legs. If the arms bend, the legs want to be straight and if the arms are straight, the legs want to bend. So in a nutshell, they are learning to operate the upper and lower body independent of each other.
This reflex emerges between six and nine months and should be inhibited between nine and twelve months. This reflex dissipates as the child learns to stand and walk.
An additional benefit of crawling is that it requires that our little ones learn to lift the body off the floor while on all fours. This helps align the spinal cord for standing and walking later on.
Another important piece of development that occurs during the crawling stage is binocular vision. This involves training the eyes to look off into the distance and then back at the hands while creeping. This helps integrate the vestibular, proprioceptive and visual senses (if you don't know what these are, see my article "The Importance of Movement") for the first time. The integration of these senses helps the sense of balance as well as space and depth perception.
It appears that in some kids this reflex does not dissipate. The cause could be genetics, little time spent crawling or extended periods of time spent in walkers or exersaucer. Whatever the cause, there are some hypothesized negative outcomes for some kids when this reflex does not subside:
- Sitting at a desk becomes uncomfortable
- Poor eye-hand coordination
- Difficulty copying from a blackboard while at a desk
- Slowness at copying
- Difficulty with vertical tracking (needed for math equations!)
- Difficulty with activities where the upper and lower parts of the body have to work independently, e.g., swimming, etc.
- Poor attention
Can you see the correlation between crawling and the above mentioned activities? Sitting at a desk requires the upper and lower parts of our body to be working independently. Kids where this reflex is still prevalent may slump at their desk or display poor posture. In addition, copying from a blackboard requires binocular vision (look down at the paper and then looking up at the far away blackboard).
As with the discussion about walkers and exersaucers, I share this information with you as something to consider. There is no definitive research out there to say that absolutely without a doubt if you child doesn't crawl he is destined to have ADHD. There may be plenty of children out there that skip crawling without any negative effects later on. Again, this is just some information for you to tuck in your parenting tool box.
So how do you encourage crawling in a little one who has already taken to walking? Get a tunnel for them to crawl through. Play pretend games like being a dog or a horse and chase them around while they are on all fours.
For more information on the theory between the symmetric tonic reflex and ADHD, you can check out the book Stopping ADHD by Nancy O'Dell and Patricia Cook.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this as it is a somewhat controversial topic. Post any questions or comments you might have!
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Re: The Importance of Crawling.
Hi,
Thanks for the article, TheMentorMom. Very professionally written. I am a father of ADHD child and we do crawling exercises. I actually found Minti and your article by googling for something like community crawling ADHD.
For parents of ADHD children. I started my blog about this treatment method and I posted our crawling Videos here:
CrawlingClub.org
TheMentorMom, you mentioned "binocular vision, looking off into the distance and then back at the hands while creeping. This helps integrate the vestibular" - this is relevant to us. My son has bad vestibular, we give him a pill before any long travel on the bus. Car is OK, but bus is high and sways all the time.
In the crawling exercises he supposed to look strait ahead, head up. Is this can be beneficial, if he will look sometimes on his hands, while crawling? This is a modification to exercises, so I am very cautious to do it. What do you think? Are you in a connection with book authors? If yes, can you please ask their opinion on this topic?
To all people here, one important detail - according to the mentioned book - a child have to crawl full 6 months, otherwise, there will be some degree of immature STNR, in other words: some degree of unnecessary dependency between movements of legs, arms and neck.
One feedback on controvercy. Yes, I heard about children who crawled less than full 6 months and have no signs of ADHD. But they probably can benefit from these exercises as well. For example, my first son. He crawled less than 6 months. He looks hyperactive, always in motion. But he is OK in a school, no problems. He just prefer motion activities, he does only minimal reading, necessary to complete a homework. Ah, also poor handwriting.
I started to do crawling exercises anyway with my youngest son, so I picked my 1st son as well. After 3 weeks of crawling, he was able to complete Harry Potter book.
Again, thanks for the article.
Arieh
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Re: The Importance of Crawling.
Our Eldest daughter met all her goals, and did spend quite 5months crawling, however she was up and away the week after her 1rst birthday.Much to my dismay. She has an Autistic Spectrum disorder, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. She has been on a regression programme for the past year. On moving to Junior School the report recommended that time be found for Roo to do her excersises in school. The teacher asked why and we gave her the info, she was very intrigued and found time to have the whole class do Roo's workout twice a day. It includes all the stages, Lizard walking, bear walking, ape walking and upright man. The Kids have great fun for ten minutes morning and afternoon. The Teacher has found that all the kids have benefitted from the programme. Figitting and fatigue have virtually disappeared and the kids are much less noisy, but more chatty and interactive. The teacher is hooked, and is advocating the programme to other teachers. So who knows. Roo may have balance issues and be clumsy, when walking, but she could cycle without stabelisers by aged 21/2yrs and at aged 7yrs is an expert rock climber. They now tell me that she can do all these extreme sports, because of her relation ship to her enviroment. Speed and hight bring the world into focus for her. Standing and walking are bad because she has not mastered gravity. ? Still trying to get my head round that. But if it works, it works.Would love to hear more if you have any insites.
Luv Winnie.xxxx
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) on one point, however, and that is about crawling being considered a developmental milestone. My experience of being an evaluator of infants and toddlers has been that all of the assessment tools I have used consider crawling to be a milestone. Having said that, however, it is only one of many things that are considered which include creeping, supporting him/herself on hands and knees, etc. I hadn't given any consideration to the possible effects of the back to sleep campaign. You've given me something to think about as well!
but he grew out of it I'm sure she will be fine, Over ha ha
